All posts tagged ‘GameStorm’

I thought I was going to be coming in to the convention for one game today and then just sort of talk to people and mosey home. I signed up on Friday to play Mad Scientist University today. It looked like the coolest, most “me” game ever.

...gnomes...yes...gnomes are evil <bwahahahahaha>

…meh. Mad Scientist Universitywas just okay. Given a choice to play something else in the future, I would play something else. But I’m glad I played it once. The Spring Break version we played gave each round to complete a relaxing homework assignment such as “Empty your mind of knowledge.” Each player is then dealt one card with an object on it that the player has to use to complete the assignment in a very evil scientist way. My object was lawn gnomes. The obvious solution for me to share was that I was going to empty my mind of knowledge by performing mind transference with a lawn gnome. This was the only round I found enjoyable because the answer came to me easily. The other eight rounds I struggled to find any answer that fit at all with the assignment. I felt the game would have been less stressful if each player were given three cards to pick from to give an answer, sort of like Apples to Applesor Dixit.

What the Flock?! Hawks and crows are taking over the tree!

While looking to play one other short game I came across a play test game which will be called something along the lines of What the Flock?! or 4 the Birds. I stopped immediately to look at the game pieces because they were just so. darn. cute! Normally I would say something about the being a play-test version of the game and to not hold the look of the game against it. In this case, I will still say that with the addition of hoping that the pieces are similar to the test subjects.

The set-up of the game is to pick a bird type (Jay, Cardinal, Martin, etc.). Once you have selected a type, you get corresponding bird pieces and cards. The cards allow you to do things like move a bird of yours or an opponent’s. Or, the cards can allow you to move an NPC crow or hawk. Each turn is started by rolling a set of 8-sided dice to determine the points on the board that you could put a bird. The next part of the turn is deciding if you want to play a bird or a card. Since there is no “8″ coordinate on the board, if an 8 is rolled a hawk or crow is placed on the board which makes all the other birds scatter. There is also a pecking order that comes into play which didn’t seem to hurt me too much since we only had four players out of a possible seven.

I am a huge fan of family games that have replay value for the adult. Considering the possible level of strategy involved in the game, and the innuendos that could fly (fly — I made another bird pun), What the Flock?! has definite replay points in the adult category.

Finally I put my dice back in my dice bag, and registered my family for next year. Visions of pawns and dice will dance through my head when I go to bed tonight and dream fondly of GameStorm14.

It's a game of Fiasco! The dice determine if outcomes to situations and scenes are positive or negative. (Photos by Cathe Post)

Dear Diary,

After a wonderful night of sound sleep, I hit the ground with full hit points this Saturday morning. I was signed up for a game of Fiasco this morning that I didn’t think I was going to make the cut to play. Three people ahead of me on the sign-up sheet didn’t show, so I was in! As usual, this game lives up to the name. The game is much more about role-playing a scenario in scenes and acts (like a movie) than about dice rolling and winning. Though, the dice do play a huge part in setting relationships, needs, locations, and objects in your fiasco of a film. (I hope my kids, and yours, don’t read my diary for today beyond this point.)

My Fiasco group.

The scenario we played was the Suburbs. My character was 21-year-old Michelle McCall. The guy in the red shirt on the right in the picture above (we’ll call him Todd, because that was his character’s name) ended up being my 17-year-old step-son. Todd is an MBA student who is manager of Tile World. Todd’s dad (my current husband) is always away on business. My ex-husband, 22-year-old Aaron (on the left), left me and took my dog to be with Alfanzo (in the middle). Alfanzo is 50 years old, and has worked at Tile World since he was a kid. His father started the company.

My ex-husband, Aaron, goes on a spree with his boyfriend of burning things like my step-son’s car and a dumpster behind Tile World, in an effort to frame me or my step-son and reclaim Tile World for Alfanzo’s family. After Aaron leaves the dog’s tag as evidence at the scene of an arson, I confront him only to be hit over the head with a steam-engine-shaped bong and am left with permanent brain damage and wheelchair-bound. Oh — and my character also ended up in a romantic relationship with my step-son. Part of my “worst-possible-outcome” included my husband coming home to me in a wheelchair and confronting me about a pregnancy and miscarriage.

Fiasco always leaves character’s luck up to the dice. All of the players/actors are equally scrutinized as each person takes turns setting/resolving scenes. Even though I have now played the Suburb scenario a couple of times, it was different and fun. Even playing with people I had never met before was an interesting and not-too-disturbing experience.

A typical Grimoire set-up

I was excited to play a game run by Roy Starkweather of Dice Age Games, my home-town game store. He ran a game called Grimoire which is played by picking a spell from your spell book, and then doing what the spell says plus taking a card from the game board. The object of the game is to have the most points from gathering loot, characters, and victory points. Spells allow you to pick on the other players by changing the order players play in, taking things from other players, or silencing other players spells. It was a fairly quick play, which I really like. I would recommend Grimoire to anyone who is looking for an addition to their party game collection.

Dragon Dice are like Warhammer with dice instead of miniatures.

Games I didn’t get to play today, but did watch, were also worth mentioning. Dragon Dice was played throughout the weekend and seemed to always have full sign-up sheets. I have played it before over at Dice Age. The closest game I can compare it to is Warhammer, but with dice instead of miniatures. The dice come in different armies and have rare and common dice, just like other collectible games. It is also a fun game that I would like to play again sometime, especially since it takes less time than a game of Warhammer!

World of Warcraft: The Collectible Card Game

Another game of note is another Cryptozoic Entertainment game that I didn’t realize was as old as it is: World of Warcraft Wow Trading Card Game. I played through a starter hunter deck and a professionally-built hunter deck and had a blast trying to figure out how the game was similar and different from Magic: the Gathering and Pokémon. It was hard to get used to the one main difference of being able to do as many actions as I could afford per turn, in any order I wanted. It took some getting used to.

Tomorrow is the last day of GameStorm14. I wonder what games I will stumble onto tomorrow?

I am no longer a GameStorm virgin. I have lived in Vancouver, Washington pretty much my entire life, and have never made it to a GameStorm before this year. It’s kind of like living in New York and never going to see the Statue of Liberty. This year marks the 14th GameStorm which has amassed 200+ (for a total of 1200 gaming enthusiasts) more people than previous years. Why is this? Well, some people I talked to conclude that we spend so much of our working time in front of a glowing monitor that does not talk to us, console us, or do much of anything except mock us, that we crave a warm person with a pulse to interact with.

Today I have learned what to do differently next year.

I need to register for the games I want to play ahead of time — months ahead of time. The very popular games (such as Quarriors) were full for the entire weekend.

Taking the kids is a good thing — at least for awhile. There was an entire room of kids’ activities that included a motorized marble run, face painting, board games, books, crafts, and other activities. This room was great for kids age 5 and under. However, I don’t think I could take my two-and-a-half-year-old out of this room really.

I will register for next year on the last day of the convention.

A motorized marble run for the kids!

My six-year-old daughter would have a blast here (she did not attend the convention this year, but is signed up for next year) — in the children’s room or otherwise. My two-year-old son? Well, he had fun in the children’s room until he was both hungry and tired. He was able to soak up a nap in his own bed while I waited for my husband Tim to play tag-team so I could head back to the convention.

My Locke and Key hand...

When I made it back, I was in card game heaven! I lurked around the Cryptozoic Entertainment table to play Locke and Key and Penny Arcade, the Game — Gamers vs Evil. Both were entertaining in their own way. Locke and Key I will devote an article to soon since I received a review copy. Penny Arcade is a deck-building game with cartoon pictures in the style of the Penny Arcade comic strip. It’s good, clean, adult, fun…well, okay, it isn’t clean but it is adult, and certainly snicker-worthy. Personally, I think it was better than Dominion since you can spend your money and energy on multiple purchases and not just one action per turn. I also managed to sneak in a game of Pokémon. This was difficult considering the key demographic for my favorite game is about twenty years younger than the average GameStorm attendee.

Making our Locke and Key plays...

Eventually, my card hands started dancing in front of me, and I knew it was time to go home and get a good night sleep to have another full day of gaming tomorrow…